Fall is starting to show its colors

The water temperature dropped to 60 this morning, fog shrouded the horizon and the crowds slept in a bit, leaving me with a open field for a very early dawn patrol at my favorite peak in front of Dogpatch . Even if the old SW swell is a bit doggy, too, I still managed at least 3 turns on the usual wave and got a few peaks to stand up on the reef for a while while I plowed over a couple of floaty sections. As the tides and crowds added to the mid morning breaking sunshine, I eased out of the lineup and back to the beach, remembering now that early sessions are better than later when fall is starting to show its colors.

To the beach in one easy motion

Not wanting to fight the crowds at Lowers again, particularly when the local high school has a play-day off today, I took a shot at Doheny at the crack of dawn, hoping the shabby swell might shape up a bit there. Turns out I was almost right. The SW swell, sometimes between close outs, offered a few maddening well shaped but slow waves that rolled into the beach from all way outside at one turtle pace speed, cutting across the little jetty and onto shore. So the amusing part for this morning's adventure was practicing this several times so when I finally caught my last wave I rode it onto the shore, stepped off the board and continued up the shore to the beach in one easy motion.

While I still can

People always ask me what the big deal is about saving Lower Trestles. It is kind of a two edge sword. On one hand, like today, you get perfect overhead peaks on the outside and lightning fast walls on the inside where most other spots nearby are closed out and funky. On the other hand, you draw in the worst of the worst types of surfers who take off 2-3 deep on every single wave and make life miserable if not impossible for everyone out, so almost every wave goes to waste. So, if you ask me if saving Trestles is worth it, I'd say not for this pack of mongrels. I sat way inside and picked up the smaller and better shaped ones while watching in horror as wave after wave was completely wasted by one guy ruining it for another. It always happens after the big contest; all the wannabes surf down at Lowers pretending they are Kelly Slater and tear up each other for a couple weeks, then they all get weary of each other and go home to surf their local spots, leaving the place for me for the Winter. And Winter can't come soon enough. In spite of the crowds, somehow, I managed to get some really beefy head high waves today in pretty good conditions. A couple of gouging turns, full speed runs for 100 yards down the inside point and a few long rock and roll floaters would make up the highlight reel today. So, even if I doubt if Trestles is worth saving for the motley crew that surfs it, until the Toll Road construction, I intend to make as many withdrawals from the Trestle's Banks while I still can.

Always a good thing

It always seems the weekends are crowded when the weather turns fair, but this weekend was really beautiful, so it was just a little too crowded for me. Today was wonderfully free from the elbow to elbow weekend warriors, and I just paddled out into empty peaks for the most part under sunny skies. The shape was not so great, but there were lots of waves. All the Geezers sat outside for the most part complaining of no waves while I rode wave after wave on the inside. The Southwest swell was a bit closed out, but the other 2 little south swells would sneak into the inside reef and stand up over the point pretty well at times. Not the best session, but I probably rounded up more waves in an hour than I could wrangle from the crowd if I had gone out all weekend. Also, at this stage of the game, a couple of days off to let the internal bleeding stop is also always a good thing.

The last day of summer

What should have been really good surf seemed to avoid me most of the morning. I paddled out to an empty line up of overhead waves and just couldn't find the right place at the right time. Then the masses came out to join me and everyone else seemed to be at the right place at the right time except me. The swells slowly switched around, making the big close out sets more manageable in the sunny offshore conditions. Only in the last 45 minutes or so did things really come together. The higher tide pushed the breaking waves from the gutless outside breaking walls to a pretty snappy pitching inside break over the reef and proceeded to serve up some of the tasty hollow waves on, sadly, the last day of summer.

Just to good to be true.

There are only a few things Sano can't handle. One is a south wind. One is a Southwest swell. The other is more universal-crowds. Today the SW swell and crowds made most of the spots just a bit more in the no-fun zone than I consider worth the effort, so I traveled a bit north to a Dana Point. What I though was a small miracle had me staring at head high walls racing down the by the jetty with only a couple guys out. I pinched myself but hurriedly put on the wet suit and paddled out. Almost immediately I launched into a real beauty for a great start to the morning. Then, as if somebody let out an invisible signal, the crowd swelled from 3 to 15 in the time it took for me to get a couple waves. Not just your average annoying crowd, these guys were old geezers on floating barges gladly taking off in front of you and never looking back. I got a few more waves and then out of frustration I just sat inside and cut them off for a last few waves, then left. Alas, sometimes it is just to good to be true.

Icing on the cake.

Indian Summer continues to produce some outstanding surf. Although the word and crowd was out and about at Lower Trestles this morning, nobody was out at Dogpatch for an hour or so, letting me vacuum up head high wally waves zooming over the inside reef as fast as possible. Although not the quality of wave you find at Lowers, I'll take uncrowded over crowded any day, because I've never found adding people in the water ever added to the surfing quality experience. Anyway, I had a great time until the high tide put a cork in it. I waited it out today, though, finding time to repair a ding and having a fine breakfast bar breakfast. Paddling out again for a rare second morning session, this time in the spring suit, it really felt like summer as tons of groms paddled about crashing into each other and running over everyone else. I rescued a hat from some poor girl who ran over some poor geezer and brought it back into the beach, noting that I prefer the summer like conditions without the summer like crowds, if you please. As it stands, the morning go-out was full of tubes and turns while the second session was merely a sunny bit of icing on the cake.

Really nothing short of epic!

Conditions are so temperamental in surfing that rarely does everything hit opus at the same time. Today, fortunately, everything did. Hot offshore winds, perfect tides, a number of well shaped deep water swells, and a light crowd produced some extraordinarily screaming 100 yard long tubey little freight trains at Lower Trestles this morning. Surfing in the crack between when the early morning locals get a few before work and before the drunks stagger back down to the point, I had my favorite peak to myself as set after set of big deep water swells pushed past the main point and right to me. Aside from a couple of dozen waves including the double tube ride and several full tilt power turns to catapult me up, over and down the point, today was really nothing short of epic!

Pretty good Sunday service

With the lousy drizzly and windy weather, not to mention the ASP contest crowds behind me, today opened up with some really good Indian Summer weather and some pretty fun waves down at the Dogpatch at Sano. With cool yet strong offshore wind conditions, the tourists were blown out to sea so as to let me have an hour and a half of pretty much everything that came through, some waves producing some fun walls and little hooks with which to play. Once again, the inside sections opened up a few to climb into or float over, making an unexpected but welcomed pretty good Sunday service.

Between the cracks

I got out predawn-early into the contest carnival that now exists at Lowers and got a few excellent waves today. The lulls were painfully long, but every 10 minutes or so, 5 waves or so would go charging through the point. I picked off a few side-shifters that were pretty sweet. It seems the luck that the ASP brings with the contest spins off a few epic wave events for me, too. I watched the contest from the seal eye view I like at the corner of the contest while picking off a few peaks, but the south wind was on the rise and I didn't think those winds boded well for the contest or me sticking around to watch. I do enjoy the parking lot access, so it is just a hop, skip and jump over the trestle tracks during the contest. I'll have to wait until the winds stop, but with the swell as fun as it is, a nice soundtrack playing through the PA speakers, I'll have to sneak out in between the circus clown crowds like today to get waves between the cracks.

Dancing with the Devil

After designing machines to extract nickels from retired old ladies for a while, I finally made it back out today into some Dopatch mushy lines. The contest for the ASP, or Asshole Surfing Professionals, have taken over at Lowers for a week so it's best to give them a bit of room as their moniker of A.S.P. , or asp, belies their ability to snake just about every wave away from you. Still, I got some better than expected waves on the inside reef at good old Dogpatch. The gezeers stayed way outside and I picked up lots of inside waves that actually got pretty interesting on the shallow reef. When the waves stood up on the reef, the waves got a nice hollow hook to them that kept me in lots of long waves just barely skating over the rocky racetrack which I call Dancing with the Devil.

Tourists and trolls

Indian summer has finally arrived. Kids are gone, the air is a bit crisper and crowds are small. Today's little 2-4 wind swell and a couple of head high SW bombs for fun proved fun. I find by sitting out at my favorite spot all by myself and picking off the good ones that peel off and leave the one-peak one-turn ones to pass by is the way to go. Surfing is a matter of hustle and flow, and at Lower Trestles, it's almost all hustle, and that usually means hustling waves from someone else. Off peak, I get more into the flow of the wave and most of the time the swell winds down the point much better anyway, letting me set up sequences of things and not just one big move or another. The thing is, most surfers are retarded, not Rain Man retarded, Paris Hilton retarded. I'd just as well avoid them than let them embarrass themselves trying to string words together, and let them surf on the main peak with all the other tourists and trolls.

I'm looking forward to a raging Fall

Labor Day means everyone drags their old dusty surfboard out for its yearly rinse. Lucky for me, even if all the campgrounds are full, all the parking spots are taken and all the slots are filled on the main breaks, there remains a few less traveled places along the Trestles area. One of them being the San Onofre Trails area. I looked at Trail 6, but trusty Trail 2 offered an empty lineup, which is good enough for the lackluster 2-4 wind swell that rolled through. Not many memorable waves came, so I worked out a few inside lefts with cutbacks into the whitewater and out again just for jollies. Tomorrow, all the dustless surfboards return to their garage rafters, school is back in session, and I'm looking forward to a raging Fall.

The only game in town

Tropical pink and blue mackerel skies got me into the water today more than anything. With just a hint of a hurricane in Mexico affecting the weather, but not the surf, I paddled out on the inside left of the main Lowers point and picked off a few little bowlies for breakfast. A few bigger sets appeared out of nowhere, so I went outside and picked up a couple of beauties, a couple of unlikely hollow lefts and a couple of rights. As is customary on the weekend, I was joined by tourists and trolls of every sort, from Japanese tourists to Father and Son tag teams, and everything in between. The tide push gave up only an hour of waves, but they will have to do for now, for when it the swell gets as small as it is, Lower Trestles is the only game in town.

Galactus would be proud

The first post on a blog is usually a long drawn out wordy diatribe so let's keep this simple. I surf. I keep track of the waves and conditions for each day's session here. I usually only post on days I go out. I surf in and around San Clemente's Trestles area . There are scores of breaks of differing size, shape and quality around the area. Plus I feed on the local Nuclear Power Plant at San Onofre to keep up my cosmic energy. Galactus would be proud.